Chapter 60| Last Stand

Chapter 60: Chapter 60| Last Stand

The timer read 06:12 remaining.

Team Six — 180 points.

Team Three — 0 points.

Zane looked at the numbers.

Then at Dex across the platform.

Maren appeared beside him.

"Make your call," she said quietly.

"I’m going full output," Zane said. "I take Dex. You hold the platform when dex’s teammate makes it through the walkway."

She looked at him for exactly one second.

"Go," she said.

Zane activated Overdrive at 60%.

The surge hit instantly. Everything dialing up. He looked at Dex across the platform and thought about the acceleration equipment on Dex’s forearm. The way the shockwave converted into directional momentum.

’I saw how he did it,’ Zane thought. ’Impact Breaker through the feet. Forward facing. Convert the output into propulsion.’

He pressed his palm against the platform surface.

Activated Impact Breaker at 60% output downward and forward simultaneously.

The shockwave pushed through the composite floor and redirected. Not outward, forward. The force launched him across the platform faster than his legs alone could carry him.

He crossed the distance in under a second.

Dex’s eyes went wide.

’He didn’t expect that,’ Zane thought.

Palm contact. Impact Breaker at 60% output direct. The hit caught Dex across the chest at close range inside a full Overdrive window.

Dex spun from the impact. One full rotation. His boots caught the platform edge teetered and then he went over the railing.

The facility floor was fifteen meters below.

Zane registered that he had also used his forward momentum to carry himself over the railing alongside Dex.

’Oh,’ he thought.

He grabbed the railing on the way over. Caught it. Dangled for exactly two seconds before pulling himself back up.

Dex landed on the facility floor below with the controlled roll of someone who had fallen from heights before and had prepared for it. He stood up. Looked up at Zane hanging from the railing.

"You threw yourself over," Dex said."Well played man".

"Tactical," Zane said.

Dex stared at him.

Then laughed. Short and genuine.

From above he heard Maren’s voice.

"Dex is eliminated. Get back up here."

Zane pulled himself onto the platform.

Below — Maren had dropped to the platform floor level when Dex fell and was now facing him across the facility ground.

Except Dex wasn’t eliminated.

He’d landed clean. No drop off the platform. He’d gone over the railing voluntarily after the spin and landed on his feet.

’He’s still in,’ Zane thought. ’The rule was dropping off the platform eliminates you. He jumped.’

Maren had clocked it before Zane finished the thought.

She activated Overdrive and dropped off the platform herself controlled descent, landing clean on the facility floor in front of Dex.

’She’s taking the fight to him,’ Zane thought.

Dex activated Impact Breaker. Short range burst forward.

Maren dodged. Angular. Clean. Already inside the burst radius before it fully extended.

She landed three hits in quick succession. The barrage from before, precise, each one finding a gap in his shock nullification coverage.

Dex redirected. Fired another burst.

She dodged again. Barely.

Then a sound from the center walkway.

Not footsteps.

BOOM!

Something hit the walkway support with significant force and the entire structure shook.

Cole Mercer flew up from the walkway entrance. Launched upward by what looked like a compressed earth burst from below and landed hard on the platform surface above. He slid. Caught the railing.

Looked at Zane with the specific expression of someone who had done their absolute best and had run out of best.

"I tried to hold him," Cole said.

Then his eyes closed.

He’d fainted.

A figure appeared at the top of the walkway.

Not Wren Hale.

Someone Zane hadn’t tracked during the drill. A lean student from Team Six who had been holding the lower obstacle zone this entire time. Dario, he stepped onto the platform and shaped something in his hands.

Earth. Literally. The composite floor material pulling apart at his touch, reforming into dense packed spheres in his palms.

Earth manipulation Sigil. He had the ability to Harden and soften it at will.

’New problem,’ Zane thought.

"There goes our advantage," Zane said.

Below — Dex’s voice carried up easily.

"If I were you," Dex said between Maren’s strikes. Still dodging, still moving, somehow still conversational "I would probably consider giving up. We’re all exhausted. The numbers don’t lie."

Zane looked at the scoreboard.

Team Six — 220 points.

Team Three — 0 points.

Timer: 03:18 remaining.

On the platform the earth manipulation student had locked his hands together and pressed them against the composite surface. The material responded. Hardening in specific patterns, rising in controlled formations.

A band of compressed earth wrapped around Maren’s legs from below. Shooting up through the platform gap, locking her in place mid-strike.

She looked down.

Then up at Zane.

Zane tried to move.

The earth student redirected a compressed burst from the platform surface, caught Zane mid-step and locked him from the waist down. Half his body was encased in hardened composite material.

He pulled. The material held.

Maren was still throwing punches from her locked position landing hits on nothing, the frustration of someone who could fight perfectly and had been removed from the fight by terrain.

The timer ticked down.

02:44.

02:43.

Instructor Vael’s megaphone clicked on from the observation point.

"Hmm." A pause. "Team Three appears unable to continue. Team Six holds mid ground, lower obstacle zone, and has neutralised the remaining Team Three members." Another pause. "The win goes to Team Six."

The timer stopped.

Silence across the facility.

Zane looked at his legs still locked in compressed earth.

Looked at Maren still locked at the shins.

Looked at Cole Mercer unconscious against the platform railing.

Looked at Dex on the facility floor below brushing composite dust off his hero suit with the complete serenity of someone who had never doubted the outcome.

"Good drill," Dex said upward.

Zane looked at the scoreboard one more time.

Team Six — 220 points.

Team Three — 0 points.

’Zero,’ Zane thought. ’We scored zero points.’

’We held the platform for the entire round and scored zero points.’

The earth student released the ground locks. The compressed material crumbled back into the floor.

Maren straightened up. Dusted off her training gear. Looked up at Zane from .

"We held the platform," she said.

"We scored zero points," Zane said.

"At least we tried our best," she said again. Firm. Like that was a fact worth keeping.

Zane looked at her.

’Six weeks of 6:20 AM,’ he thought. ’And she still finds the thing worth keeping.’

He almost smiled.

’I don’t think this is about the system or the mission anymore,’ he thought. ’I’m genuinely interested in her.’

He looked at the corridor ceiling.

’When did that happen,’ he thought.

The system stayed quiet.

For once it had nothing to add.